10-Year-Old Girl Takes Bullet While Shielding Baby Brother

LAS VEGAS, NV (CBS Local) – A 10-year-old girl in Las Vegas is being called a hero after she used her own body as a shield to save her baby brother during a parking lot gun battle.

Aaliyah Inghram was on a shopping trip to Walmart with her mother, her 18-month-old brother, and her cousin when two men began shooting at each other on May 8. “I didn’t want the baby to get hurt so I like stepped in front of the babies. If I wouldn’t have stood in front of my brother, he would have been shot in the stomach,” the young hero said, via WNEM.

Aaliyah was shot while protecting her brother. Her mother, Samantha Tygrit, was packing the family’s groceries when she was struck in the shoulder by the sudden wave of stray bullets. “I died inside. I just scooped her up in my arms. I’d been shot, but I just picked her up,” Tygrit told reporters. “Her little body could only shield so much. But she threw herself in front of them.”

Both Inghram and her mother are recovering from their injuries. The 10-year-old said she was just happy to have saved her brother’s life. One of the shooters was reportedly caught and taken to a local hospital with critical injuries. The other man fled the scene and police are still looking for him.